You’d think that they might be a little interested in getting my money! I already had my results transferred to their site, so I’m just wanting to unlock the results. It was hard to find a way to get it into my cart, and once I did, the “Proceed to checkout” button doesn’t work! I tried it on both of my computers and neither one worked. Hm.

I tried it on PC with Explorer and Firefox and on my Mac. I think it somehow had the item selected twice (though there was only the $10 cost), but it worked after I cleared the cart a few times. Not really sure why it finally worked.

But I finally got it to work. And I finally was able to identify a small segment of DNA on my dad’s chromosomes. His grandparents were all cousins to each other and it is so difficult to know where any specific piece of DNA came from. But I now have a small segment identified that came from my great great great grandparents when they immigrated from France in 1840. If you were to look at my blog, you could see how a couple of weeks ago a few French researchers freely helped me to find baptismal, wedding, and death records of that family. Even found the names of all four grandparents of that great, great, great grandfather. Lots of good info coming in from that line of the family.

Is there any advantage to transferring (and unlocking) DNA testing results from AncestryDNA if one has already (previously) done a DNA test with FTDNA (back in 2014)? Would adding Ancestry’s DNA data provide more or better matching or other benefits, or simply be repetitive (at best) or possibly cause problems of some sort or another… if the transfer is even allowed?

If the Ancestry test is a V2 test, better results will be obtained by taking Famiky Tree DNA’s own test because the files are only partially compatible. You only receive about 20-25% of your matches – the closest ones. An earlier V1 test before May 2016 is fully compatible. There is no benefit to uploading multiple tests, but there is a benefit to using either a compatible test or testing on their platform. MyHeritage and the quite old 23andMe V3 tests are also fully compatible.

Roberta, you are such a blessing — helping us ‘mere DNA mortals’ slog through the many nuances of testing and application. And often making us laugh along the way…
I take it that your answer means that there is NO benefit in uploading an AncestryDNA test which was submitted before May 2016 (this test in question was Oct. 2015, thus V1 I assume) because it would be considered “uploading multiple tests”? Is this correct?
Or, are you meaning that because it would be the Ancestry’s earlier V1 test and therefore compatible that there IS some added benefit to uploading the results to FTDNA (where testing was previously done in 2011)?
Which is correct? (I think I didn’t understand what you meant by “uploading multiple tests”.)
On the cautious side – can uploading results to FTDNA from another company ever negatively affect the DNA or matching results one already has from their FTDNA-done test?
Thanks again.

The Ancestry test taken before May of 2016 is on the exactly same chip that FTDNA uses now. So it’s the same format and coverage as the current FTDNA chip. Tests taken in May of 2016 and after will receive fewer matches, so for those people, they can upload, but they will receive more benefit by taking the FTDNA test itself.

You cannot upload two results to FTDNA on the same account. An uploaded test from another vendor can’t hurt anything at FTDNA with the exception that you won’t get as many matches if you upload the Ancestry V2 or the 23andMe V4 tests.

Roberta…
Thank you for your replies.
Sorry, I must be missing something here!
You wrote: “The Ancestry test taken before May of 2016 is on the exactly same chip that FTDNA uses now. So it’s the same format and coverage as the current FTDNA chip.”

Maybe I’m missing this knowledge: I looked online but can’t seem to find what chip was used for FTDNA testing in mid-2014. Is the chip which FTDNA uses now the same chip as they used in mid-2014, so that one’s FTDNA results from then are still the most current, up-to-date and complete? (If so, then no need to upload Ancestry’s 2015 test results to FTDNA.)

The point of the question I’m asking is whether Ancestry DNA results of 2015 — before the change of May 2016 — are an improvement on FTDNA over FTDNA’s own testing results of mid-2014?

Simply trying to get the best, most up-to-date and useful results on FTDNA.
Hope this makes sense!

HI Roberta, I have an account for my Uncle (tests were returned last week) and I want to upload my own Ancestry results now. However, it won’t let me add anything to that, nor can I make another account. Both computers automatically fill in the Kit number and password for my Uncle. I’ve signed in and out several times. Where can I do this without being recognised? And how will I manage going from one to the other in future? I’d prefer to manage them from the same account, and to see our matches together. Thanks for your interesting posts.

At Family Tree DNA every person has to have a separate account. To upload a second kit just start from the beginning with the second one and when your computer prefills any number, just backspace it out and put the right one. You will sign in to both of the kits separately.

I had tried to upload before my results and had difficulty and thought I would try again with these instructions. In the past, I have successfully done other family members transfer to familytree but I am having difficulty with my daughter for some reason. When I click on the ancestry dna tab, I don’t get a home page option. These are the options I get……..

In the Ancestry instructions part of the article, there is a link to instructions. The download part is not in that drop down list at Ancestry. If you click on that link in the article, it shows you where the instructions are.

Assuming that is the v3 chip, just follow the instructions in the article based on whether you have or don’t have a current account at FTDNA. I don’t recall exactly when they moved from the v2 to the v3 chip but if the upload fails, that’s probably why.

Thanks for the discount. It was not the easiest transfer, however. I already had a kit from 23andme uploaded, but the chromosome browser, or other tools, never displayed in my dashboard. I decided to retrigger the tools and downloaded my AncestryDNA test and was able to upload that. The system gave it the same ID number. Now I wonder if the Ancestry raw data has overwritten the 23andme data. I am wondering if any other users had this issue with a previously transferred kit?